Category Archives: technology

The First 100: The computers in question face challenges

While much of the conversation surrounding Mayor Langford’s revitalization plan has been around the ways that he plans to raise the monies to accomplish his goals, another discussion has occurred surrounding the laptops that he would like to have in school system children’s hands when they return from the Christmas holiday.

Last night 60 Minutes re-broadcast this story about the XO Laptop, its creator and the issues surrounding the underlying goal. The rebroadcast has added to the attention given to the computer as they will only be made available to American households until the end of December, and only if you purchase a second computer for a child in a developing country.

You can also check out this NPR podcast from the November 29 edition of Talk of the Nation or the buzz surrounding accusations of patent infringement by the not-for-profit, though it means that the organization’s for profit competitors are benefiting.

WAPI-AM launches redesigned website

WAPI website - old WAPI website - NEW
 

Screenshots of old (left) and newly redesigned WAPI-AM websites

Citadel Broadcasting’s Big Talker WAPI-AM 1070 recently received a website redesign that appears to be using a blogging content management system. We became aware of the site redesign over the weekend. The new site appears to take advantage of increased usage of widescreen monitors.

Continue reading

From the Stationmaster: Do you Twitter?

We’ve already been a-Twitter for a little over a month now using the popular microblogging service to help us get the word out. Now we figured we’d take a page out of The New York Times’ playbook and provide some additional feeds for you to follow.

The Terminal now has Twitter feeds for all of the sections of the site. If you already have a Twitter account, just click on the URL of the section that you want to follow.

If you don’t have an account, just create one and then find us. This service also allows you to know when we post while you’re on the road or allows you to follow us using your instant messaging program (AOL IM, MySpace, Yahoo!, etc.), Facebook, or your mobile device (cell phone, PDA, etc.)! We hope you enjoy this additional way to follow your hub for conversation.

Enjoy the ride!

The First 100: City Hall’s now WiFi

This could be a really interesting experience (at least for me and other media). Mayor Langford announced during his comments this morning that portions of City Hall are now public wireless areas.  How’s it working? Well, we’re posting this from council chambers right now.

See The Magic City in pictures

Screenshot of Flickr City pages - Birmingham, AL.

Well, we’ve already started using the latest Best of the Magic City photos on our front page (that’s just in case you didn’t already know).

We’ve also created our own Flickr Group trying to encourage folks to tag pictures that could be used for stories or that simply show things you enjoy about the Magic City. The folks at Flickr have gone one step further and they’ve created pages for cities. The one that exists for Birmingham is shown in the screenshot above. Check it out and see if your city’s already set up.

Birmingham Startup creates a CrossConneXion

CrossConnexion screenshot

Screen capture of CrossConneXion.com

The result of two weekends worth of hard work and gallons of coffee is up on the World Wide Web this morning. CrossConneXion is the product resulting from the first ever Birmingham Startup session. The blog tells a great story about the highs and lows associated with this type of event, including just what some others are thinking about it.

The Birmingham Business Journal posted a great wrap-up of the activities surrounding the creation of the site, the brain child of Jim Sutton, youth pastor at First Church Worship Center in Tarrant.

From the Stationmaster: Blogging from Vegas

Yeah, I’m in Vegas, baby!

No, I’m not trying to win money to run the site (though I’m still thinking about it Smile), I’m making connections and working on updates and improvements to the site in the coming months by attending BlogWorld Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

It is being called the largest blogging and new media conference that has ever been held. Right now I’m listening to a conversation with the creator of the platform used to run our site – Matt Mullenweg of Automattic (WordPress.org). We’ve already struck some verbal commitments on some great additions to The Terminal in the coming months. I’m going to write about his comments on my personal blog either later today or tomorrow morning (for those that are wondering, yes this will be the official relaunch of Dre’s Ramblings – even though I’m not quite finished laying out the site).

Part 2 of our survey results review will be up this evening beginning at 7:30 p.m. Part 1 is already up and it’s been referenced by Sam Davidson at Cool People Care (thanks!).

Enjoy the ride over there!